The Singular Of 'Apocalypses'
by Beer Good
Summary: What if The Gift played out as on the show... right up until about two minutes from the end? What if Buffy didn’t jump? Let’s see what happens. Oh, and just so you know: people are gonna die. It's not gonna be pretty. COMPLETED.
1. The Beginning

**1. The Beginning  
**  
"Buffy, it's started."

The two sisters stared as a hole ripped right through reality, the night sky rippled and cracked and energy started pouring out, causing havoc below. Buffy was vaguely aware that her friends on the ground were in deep trouble, but right now she had to prioritize. She was here  
_I have to know that you'll take care of her, that you'll keep her safe.  
I won't let anything happen to you. I promise.  
The last thing she'll see is me protecting her._  
to protect Dawn.

(Far below them...  
Anya pushed Xander out of the way from falling debris, taking the hit herself.  
Willow and Tara locked eyes, preparing to die together.  
Spike desperately tried to get to his feet, wincing at the pain in his broken bones.  
Giles looked up, sighed and slowly shook his head.)

"I'm sorry..." Dawn felt her words getting lost in the crackle from the opening portal. _Just as well; how do you apologize for ending the world? You don't. You act. You stop it._

"It doesn't matter." Buffy reached out to hug Dawn and instead found herself stopping her sister from running past her. "What are you doing?"

"I have to jump. The energy –"

"It'll kill you!"

"I know." _It's not like I ever existed anyway._ "Buffy, I know about the ritual. I have to stop it."

"No!"

The tower shook violently as another burst of energy hit it. Dawn almost lost her footing, feeling weaker and more desperate every second as blood drained from her. "I have to! Look at what's happening!" As if on cue, the rift widened enough to let a huge dragon-like creature through; it swept around the tower, and both of them felt the stench and the winds of hell from its wings. "Buffy, you have to let me go! Blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing it'll never stop. You know you have to let me... It has to have the blood!"

The world was eerily silent for a while, as Buffy stared at her, her face contorted with emotion, trying to come to a decision. Then Dawn saw the pain melting away into calm acceptance, the rising sun seeming to illuminate the Slayer from within as she realized what she had to do. As did Dawn.

"Buffy... no!"

"Dawnie... I have to –"

"NO!" Dawn refused to even let her finish the sentence. This was _her_ apocalypse, _her_ fault, and she was not going to let Buffy kill herself to save someone who wasn't even real. Buffy may have had Slayer reflexes, but Dawn had the memories of growing up playing touch football with a sister who always fell for the same moves. She faked right, went left and threw herself over the edge.

_To be continued, obviously._


	2. The End Of The Beginning

**2. The End Of The Beginning**

It happened very fast.

It happened very slowly.

Buffy spun around as Dawn ducked past her, and threw herself after her sister almost without looking. Dawn had a head start, Buffy had Slayer speed, it all came down to Buffy's hands flailing blindly over the edge of the platform, grabbing the thin material of Dawn's dress, feeling it rip like paper in her hands as gravity grabbed the teenager and pulled... for a   
_moment  
second  
minute  
lifetime_  
everything stopped, and Buffy was sure she'd been too late. Then her hand found Dawn's upper arm, seized and held on for dear life.

And so they dangled, Buffy hanging on to her sister with one hand and to the construction where Dawn had been tied up with the other, her legs fumbling for just enough balance to keep them both from plummeting. It took a few seconds for them both to realise what had happened – especially since the portal kept growing bigger, louder and brighter with every passing second.

* * *

(Willow stared up at the tower, barely able to see the two struggling bodies on the end of it. Then she turned back to Tara. "I'm sorry, I can't reach her. I just don't have enough juice left... I used it all up when I... when Glory..." 

"Shh, it's OK." Tara kissed her forehead. "I'm with you. Whatever happens. I love you."

They embraced, joined hands and closed their eyes.)

* * *

"Dawn?" Blinded by the flashes of energy that became ever more frequent below them, Buffy could barely make out her sister as more than a shadow. "I'm gonna pull you up now, OK? Just relax and..." 

Dawn replied by sinking her nails in Buffy's wrist. "LET GO OF ME!" She started thrashing wildly, trying to kick off from the tower, but she couldn't reach. The only thing connecting her to the world was Buffy's iron grip on her arm, and even that wasn't half as painful as the knowledge of what would happen if she didn't fall. And so she clawed, flailed, bit and screamed... as Buffy still refused to let go, their blood and tears mixing as it dropped into the portal.

* * *

("Come on, Ahn. Wake up, honey. Wake up. Don't be like this." Xander had cleared the rubble off Anya and was desperately trying to wake her up. "We got plans, remember?" 

Giles kneeled down next to him. "Xander... are you sure you want her to..."

"What?"

"I'm just saying..." Giles nodded at the portal, which had already grown big enough to light up the whole courtyard. The noise of it had gone from crackling to a sustained howl of white noise that somehow got Giles thinking about Jimi Hendrix's last show. "Maybe she's better off unconscious."

"Shut up, Giles." Xander's voice was equal parts fury and fear. "This isn't how this ends. Buffy saves the day like she always does, we live happily ever after and I get to help you alphabetize demons until we're _both _boring old farts. ANYA!")

* * *

Dawn had calmed down a little, the hysteria giving away to pleading. "Please, Buffy... you have to..." They were deadlocked, Buffy hanging halfway off the platform, off balance, and Dawn dangling, refusing to cooperate. Dawn couldn't fall; Buffy couldn't pull her up. 

"I'm not going to drop you, Dawn. You have to help me. You can..." Her voice drifted off as she stared, almost hypnotized, into the fissure below them that kept widening, stretching ever downwards. From her vantage point, Buffy could see that there were things inside. Hundreds... thousands... entire worlds waiting to collide with hers. Just waiting for the opening to become large enough.

* * *

("Oh, bloody hell." Spike lurched to his feet and started limping painfully towards the tower, knowing full well there was no way he'd be able to climb all those stairs in time with two broken legs.)

* * *

"Buffy, please! There's no time! You have to let go!" 

"I can't." Buffy tore her eyes away from the blazing white light and looked at Dawn. "Dawnie, I can't... I'm sorry, but..."

"You HAVE to!" Dawn made a last desperate attempt to tear free, knowing that every second counted. "Everyone's going to die if you don't let me fall!"

"I know. But..." Buffy looked down again, her voice going strangely flat. "I think it's out of our hands now." The rift had reached the ground. And the demon army inside it poured through.


	3. Interlude: Hanging In The Balance

**Interlude: Hanging In The Balance**

_"We're calling her Dawn."  
"I could be the one to look after her sometimes, if you need a helper. Mom? Can I take care of her?"_

_"Ewww, she's stinky."_

_"Bet you can't push me all the way around!"  
"Oh yes I can!"  
"No you can't!"_

_"Buffy? Why are Mom and Dad always yelling at each other?"  
"That's... just how grown-ups talk, Dawn. Hey, you wanna play with my Barbie?"_

_"Dad doesn't hate you, Dawn."  
"Why doesn't he want to be with us?"  
"Shhh... don't cry. It'll be better once..."  
"And I don't WANT to move. It's not fair. Why can't we stay here? I don't know anyone in Sunnydale. This is all your fault."_

_"I know you let Angel spend the night. I'm SO telling Mom."  
"You do, and I'll feed you to the vampires."  
"Oh come on. Buffy, I'm 11, I don't believe in monsters anymore."  
"Yeah. You'd make a lousy vampire anyway. Let's just keep this our little secret, OK? I'll let you watch a scary movie next time Mom's out...?"_

_"Buffy, it's just Angel..."  
"He's not Angel anymore."  
"He changed his name?"  
"Please, just trust me on this. You can NOT invite him in. If he hurt you..."_

_"So where were you?"  
"LA."  
"You never even called."  
"I'm sorry, Dawnie... I just had to..."  
"I hate you."_

_"Oooooh! I'm a vampire and I've come to suck your blood!"  
"Help! It's Dracula!"  
"Girls, stop goofing around at the dinner table... and spit out those chopsticks, Dawn!"_

_"Why do you care? You're never around anyway. You don't even live here anymore..."  
"God, you're such a brat! I'm in college, Dawn, I can't spend my life looking after you."_

_"She gets to be a kid, and she acts like it's the biggest burden in the world. Sometimes I would like to just curl up in Mom's lap and not worry about the fate of the world."_

_"What was that all about?"  
"Nothing. Sister stuff."_

_"Buffy?"  
"Yeah?"  
"What's wrong with Mom?"  
"I don't know."_

_"For the last time, Dawn: you do NOT come patrolling with me, you do NOT stay out after dark, and you do NOT 'borrow' my make-up!"_

_"We have to take care of her. Buffy, promise me. If anything happens, if I don't come through this -"_

_"I'm trying, Dawn, I am really trying to take care of things. But I don't even know what I'm doing! Mom always knew..."  
"Nobody's asking you to be mom."  
"Well who's gonna be if I'm not?"_

_"Tell me to kill my sister!"  
"She's not your sister."  
"No. She's not. She's more than that. She's me. The Monks made her out of me. I hold her and I feel closer to her than... It's not just the memories they built, it's physical. Dawn is a part of me. The only part that I..."_

_"You'll fail. You'll die. We all will."  
"I'm sorry. I love you all, but I'm sorry."_

_"I knew what was right. I don't have that any more. I don't understand. I don't know how to live in this world, if these are the choices, if everything just gets stripped away. I don't see the point. I just wish... I just wish my mom was here."_

_"There's no time! You have to let go!"  
__"I can't. Dawnie, I can't..."_


	4. The Beginning Of The End

**3. The Beginning Of The End**

Eyes.

Claws.

Teeth.

There was really no other way to describe them all. First the portal, and then the courtyard, filled to the brim with creatures... beings... _things_ from many different dimensions, all at once. Some looked almost human, others nothing like it, and every possible variation in between.

Not all of them were necessarily monsters, countless seemed just as confused as the humans they would meet, but there were quite enough that were willing and able to kill anything they came across, including each other. And their cries soon drowned out the drone of the portal itself as they kept coming, fighting, pushing, tearing their way into our world.

The scoobies, of course, never stood a chance.

Xander was the first to go down. He had managed to wake Anya up and was just picking her up to get her to the hospital, still refusing to believe the portal was an actual threat... even when his own eyes told him that hundreds of demons were heading his way. They'd beat Glory, Buffy had reached Dawn, they'd saved the day. Xander happy. He was more puzzled than anything as they tore into him; he and Anya were both dead before they hit the ground.

"Enemies, fly and fall. Circling arms, raise a wall." Willow had managed to use the last of her power to put up a protective barrier around her and Tara. It was barely large enough to fit the two of them, and since they were both tapped out they knew it wouldn't hold for long. They lay down inside it, cradling each other as the demons piled on top, some just running over them, others striking at the barrier, trying to punch through. As Dawn looked down at them, they eventually disappeared under a writhing mass of claws, teeth and flesh. There was a brief flash, and the next time there was a gap in the crowd of demons, there was nothing to be seen on the ground where the witches had been.

Spike, of course, put up a fight, even though he must have known it was useless. Even if he'd been unhurt he wouldn't have stood a chance, but he stayed on his feet for as long as he could; kicking, punching, tearing, biting everything in sight. "Come on, you fuckers! It's just a flesh wound! Running away, are ya? Come here and take your medicine!" Screaming, crying and laughing, he was ripped apart piece by piece until he finally dusted.

By then, Giles was already gone. He hadn't bothered with a pointless struggle; when he realized there was no stopping what was happening, he had cast one last look at the people around him and at the struggling sisters on the top of the tower  
_(his children)_  
and then took off his glasses, putting them in his jacket pocket, and sat down with his back to the portal. As long as Giles had known Buffy, all she'd wished for was a normal life. He hadn't understood until earlier tonight what Dawn meant to her: a chance at that, if only by proxy. Hope, innocence, carefreeness. _She's more than that. She's me. _Buffy could suffer anything as long as she knew Dawn was OK... but if she died, there would be nothing left. No wonder she couldn't let go; if Dawn really _had_ been merely her sister, she could probably have let her die if it would save the world. He couldn't quite appreciate the irony of that right now, but he understood and couldn't blame her. He just hoped it would be quick. It was.

By now, the portal had stretched so wide it was barely even a portal anymore, just a piece of the landscape. The line between worlds had been erased. Yet the tower still stood, even if it was swaying back and forth. As Dawn stared down at the horror beneath her, the shock and trauma of the last 24 hours eventually caught up with her and she stopped struggling and went limp. Buffy managed to haul both herself and her sister onto the platform. They lay there in each other's arms, sobbing helplessly as the world ended around and below them.

"Buffy... they're all..."

"Shhh. Be still. It'll be over soon. I'm so sorry, Dawn... I just... I couldn't..."

"It's OK... I know. Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we'll get to see Mom again?"

Buffy didn't answer. She just held her sister as the tower kept shaking ever more violently from the bursts of energy and the demons tearing at it... Then it slowly started collapsing in on itself and she felt herself falling. And everything went black.

* * *

_Author's note: Told ya. _

_But the fat lady hasn't sung yet. There'll be an update on Monday or so. There's at least one more twist to this._


	5. The End

**4. The End**

_Clear as winter ice:  
This is your paradise...  
(The Clash)_

Sunnydale lived up to its name. Somehow the weather was always perfect in the quaint little California town, always warm enough to walk around without a jacket even at night, yet never so hot you couldn't stand it. It only ever rained on those nights when everyone had already decided to stay in and cuddle up with a good book, a movie or a loved one and listen to the rain rattle against the window pane.

Even though she didn't have to patrol anymore, Buffy was out and about a lot; after walking in on Hank and Joyce one time too many – and let's face it, when it comes to seeing your parents making love on the dinner table, one time is already FAR too many – both her and Dawn let them have the house to themselves most of the time. Besides, walking around Sunnydale was safe, and all their friends were here. They would go for picnics, go to the beach, hang out at The Bronze and just generally enjoy being young, free and American.

There were no vampires here... well, no _current_ vampires. Buffy and Angel spent a lot of days at the beach, comparing tans before sneaking off for some truly mind-blowing nights together with no risk of losing anything. William had made peace with himself and his former grandsire, and now spent much of his time convincing Xander to learn to play the bass and form a band with him and Giles. After reading the lyrics to William's songs, Xander would usually find some excuse why he couldn't right now. Most of them involved Anya; they were happier than ever together, as were Willow and Tara and Giles and Jenny.

Buffy wasn't sure how long they'd all been here; it seemed like forever, but no one showed any signs of wanting to leave. Nobody ever really talked about anything else anyway, as if they knew there were bad times behind them but there was never any need to bring it up. Nobody harbored any grudges for things that lay in the past, nobody worried about the future. Days, weeks, months, years drifted by in an easy state of perfect bliss, everyone safe in the knowledge that it would remain like this forever. And there was no pain and no grief and no fear and no doubt.

No pain and no grief and no fear and no doubt. Ever again.

No pain, no grief, no pain pain o God _pain_...

She woke up.

It was cold. The sun blasting down on her was red, much larger than it should be, and its light seemed unnatural – not really bright, just _sharp_, every shadow pitch-black, everything else blinding. Her entire body ached, but she could move. She could feel the steel and iron of what was left of the collapsed tower beneath her, and Dawn's still but breathing body on top of her. And she could see the dark figures standing in an impenetrable circle around them. Demons of all sizes, colors, shapes and smells, drooling, baring teeth, cowering, towering... many of them doing things there didn't seem to be any human words for, but all of them more or less silent and staring at the two sisters, perched on top of the heap of rubble that remained of Glory's tower. Buffy and Dawn had a circle about 20 feet across to themselves... the last demon-free zone remaining for God knows how many miles around. How long had she been out? Had all of Sunnydale fallen? All of California, America, the world?

She expected them to attack, but they never did. Instead they seemed to step back slightly as she eased Dawn onto what was left of the platform and got to her feet. Why wouldn't they finish it? As Buffy The Vampire Slayer wiped the blood from her eyes and raised her fists – which had never seemed smaller or weaker – preparing for a hopeless fight against a sea of monsters, a whisper spread throughout the crowd. The whisper turned into a murmur, and the murmur into a chant that grew louder and more confident even though it was spoken in a thousand different languages, none of which was or ever would be English.

Then she realized that she understood anyway. Perhaps some of them were telepathic, perhaps it was some previously unused Slayer power kicking in, but she understood them. They were chanting one word, over and over again.

"Hail."

The demons were cheering the end of all worlds.

"Hail."

The beginning of a new one.

"Hail!"

And the one girl in all the worlds who had had the weakness to make it happen.

"Hail, our savior!"

Panicking, Buffy fell back on what she knew; she scrambled down the heap, grabbed a somewhat humanoid-looking creature and slayed it. If that sounds easy, it's because it was; the beast didn't even fight, it let her take it and wring its neck without so much as a whimper of complaint. She reached for a piece of steel from the crumbled tower and used it to bash the next one's brains in; it didn't put its tentacles up or try to flee or even duck, she could even have sworn that it lowered its heads so she could get a clean shot. Buffy kept killing, the corpses piling up, yet no one tried to stop her. The demons went willingly to her, letting their new God take her tribute any way she saw fit.

Eventually she calmed down. Her white clothes were stained all kinds of colors of demon blood, and yet none of them had lifted a finger in defense or reacted in any other way than to keep chanting and praising her. She hadn't even made a dent in the crowd; if she kept this up for years on end, she might kill a percent of them before she died of old age. She climbed back on top of the rubble and kneeled down next to Dawn, whose wounds seemed to have started healing; they were too shallow to kill her. If there were still any open doors between dimensions, they were open forever.

Picking up her unconscious sister, Buffy stepped off the remains of the mad hell-god's trampolene-o'-doom and began to walk in a direction that seemed as good as any. As she did, the throng of demons parted and let her pass, the blazing red-black sun above them lighting up the ruins of Sunnydale as all the worlds crumbled and bled together. Stumbling over the blood-soaked ground, Buffy kept walking towards a horizon that seemed impossibly far away as the demons' awestruck chant turned into a roar of triumph.

"HAIL!"

* * *

_Author's note: And this is where we leave her for now. I'm honestly not sure if, when or how I will continue this. I mean, I think I just killed six billion people, which I suppose makes me a super villain, which is cool, but I really don't know where to go from there. I have some ideas, but nothing solid yet. Any ideas appreciated._

_Oh, and I'm going to have to write something supremely silly to make up for this._


End file.
